Stability of oryzanol fortified biscuits on storage.

Biscuit can be used as a functional food to deliver
nutraceuticals to consumers. One such natural nutraceutical
oryzanol is present in rice bran oil. Oryzanol possesses a
variety of health benefits which include reduction of cholesterol
in blood, improvement of capillary action of blood
vessels, anti-aging effect and others. Biscuit is a well known
cereal based processed food and the fortification of oryzanol
into the biscuits will go a long way to provide antioxidant
rich, highly stable and acceptable functional food to the
consumers. Biscuits were prepared with commercially available
fat (CF) and oryzanol fortified fat (OFF). The control
biscuits (CB) and oryzanol fortified biscuits (OFB) were
packed in 200 gauge polypropylene pouches, stored at
27 °C with different relative humidity (RH 11 %, 22 %,
32 %, 44 % and 56 %) and analysed for its stability during
storage of 120 days. Critical moisture content of OFB
(4.8 %) was slightly less than that of CB (5.3 %). The fat
content of the CB (12.2 %) and OFB (12.5 %) did not
change during storage while free fatty acid content
(0.36 % and 0.60 %) and peroxide value (0.08 and
0.17 meq. O2/100 g biscuit) respectively for CB and OFFB
was showed small but significant changes during storage.
Oryzanol content (292 mg) and radical scavenging activity
(81.1 %) of OFB did not change during storage. The biscuits
had a shelf life of minimum 3 months at 27 °C. Oryzanol in
OFB showed good stability during baking and storage of
biscuits.